An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or by the remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle. UAVs are commonly used in military and special operations applications, and are increasingly finding uses in civil, commercial and recreational applications, such as policing and surveillance, aerial filming, and delivering of packages to end consumers.
In the course of a mission of an aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”), regardless of the application, it is often desirable to land the aircraft on a pre-specified location, such as on the ground or on a moving vehicle or platform, in order to ensure safety of the personnel and/or property and/or to match a specific requirement of the mission. In many cases, the pre-specified landing location is beyond, or out of, the line of sight of a remote operator of the UAV.
In view of the above, there is a need for a system and method for the automated landing of an aircraft of UAV in a variety of landing scenarios.